Jekyll2017-12-15T11:30:45-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/Syntax: Introduction to Sentential StrutureSyntax: Introduction to Sentential StrutureCAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Promising not to forget2017-12-15T09:45:00-05:002017-12-15T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/homework/promising-not-to-forget<p>It was brought to my attention that both on the practice final and on the “exercises #9”
I used the verb <em>promise</em> as a transitive verb. This is probably a borderline error.
Conceptually, <em>promise</em> is not really a transitive verb, but a ditransitive one.
Someone makes the promise, they promise some CP, and <em>the promise is to someone</em>.
I drew the trees on the keys as if one could kind of make a promise into the air,
rather than to anyone specific. But I think that’s just not what <em>promise</em> means.</p>
<p>So: Sorry if that was confusing. If I use the verb <em>promise</em> on the final, it will
be with an explicit promisee (and then should be drawn as a ditransitive, like
<em>tell</em> is on the practice final).</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017It was brought to my attention that both on the practice final and on the “exercises #9” I used the verb promise as a transitive verb. This is probably a borderline error. Conceptually, promise is not really a transitive verb, but a ditransitive one. Someone makes the promise, they promise some CP, and the promise is to someone. I drew the trees on the keys as if one could kind of make a promise into the air, rather than to anyone specific. But I think that’s just not what promise means.Exercises key posted2017-12-08T09:45:00-05:002017-12-08T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/announcements/exercises-key-posted<p>Since we really didn’t wind up talking about it after all, I’ve
posted a “key” for the “exercises #9” that was handed out as a
not-to-hand-in homework.</p>
<p>It is not impossible that there are typos. Let me know if you
find some.</p>
<p>The current version is 1.0, and it is here:
<a href="/lx321f17/assets/homework/lx321f17-hw09-key.pdf">Homework-9-key</a></p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Since we really didn’t wind up talking about it after all, I’ve posted a “key” for the “exercises #9” that was handed out as a not-to-hand-in homework.*Wh*andout (Nov 30) posted2017-12-02T09:45:00-05:002017-12-02T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/announcements/wh-handout-posted<p>Ok, that took me longer to do than I’d hoped, but there is now
<a href="/lx321f17/assets/handouts/lx321f17-12.pdf">a 21-page handout</a>
that covers the little bit of new stuff that I’d hoped to talk about
on Thursday, but covers in much greater detail the stuff from the preceding
class. Definitely read this, I think it will be helpful, even if it turns out
that you managed to get Homework 8 done fine.</p>
<p>The handout: <a href="/lx321f17/assets/handouts/lx321f17-12.pdf">Wh-movement</a></p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Ok, that took me longer to do than I’d hoped, but there is now a 21-page handout that covers the little bit of new stuff that I’d hoped to talk about on Thursday, but covers in much greater detail the stuff from the preceding class. Definitely read this, I think it will be helpful, even if it turns out that you managed to get Homework 8 done fine.The Nov 30 non-class2017-11-30T09:45:00-05:002017-11-30T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/announcements/nov-30-non-class<p><strong>Update</strong>: So, the sense of the room when I briefly showed up today
was that homework 8 was really due a bit too soon, before we’d really
settled on how to handle the various new things in questions, auxiliaries,
etc. Although I did collect homework 8 today from some who felt confident
enough to hand it in, the official due date is postponed until
Tuesday. I will post something that will attempt to cover what we’ve
got here recently a bit more systematically and with more prose than
the handouts provide. If you handed it in but want to replace it, that’s
fine. I’ll plan to scan what I have so that I can email them back if needed.</p>
<p>Now back to what I’d originally posted, with a bit redacted, which is:</p>
<p>Ok, so it turns out I basically cannot speak, having lost my voice.
I have sent a class-wide email out, but I will also post here.</p>
<p>No meaningful class today, I will show up <s>and pick up the
homework and hand out the homework sheet</s>, but there won’t really be anything
more happening than that. <s>The homework 9 sheet I will be handing out
is linked here to the schedule page as well, so if you've emailed me
homework 8, there's no real need to show up today.</s></p>
<p>My plan is to either talk to a microphone and email/post a link to
what I would have said once I can talk again, or possibly instead to
just write it up in a bit more prose than I would normaly have
(particularly if it looks like it’s taking a while for my voice to return).</p>
<p>I’ll plan to send out another class-wide email once I have something ready
for your consumption. Meanwhile, happy Thursday.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Update: So, the sense of the room when I briefly showed up today was that homework 8 was really due a bit too soon, before we’d really settled on how to handle the various new things in questions, auxiliaries, etc. Although I did collect homework 8 today from some who felt confident enough to hand it in, the official due date is postponed until Tuesday. I will post something that will attempt to cover what we’ve got here recently a bit more systematically and with more prose than the handouts provide. If you handed it in but want to replace it, that’s fine. I’ll plan to scan what I have so that I can email them back if needed.Homework 7 reprieve2017-11-16T09:45:00-05:002017-11-16T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/homework/homework-7-reprieve<p>TL;DR: HW7 due Tue 11/21.
Ok, upon talking to a couple of people about the homework, I’m finding
that there are enough things that I didn’t really talk about sufficiently
in class that I’d rather have one more chance to go over questions and
concepts before the homework is due.</p>
<p>So, homework 7 is now officially due on Tuesday, rather than today.</p>
<p>If you’ve already sent it to me, you can replace it if you wish.
If you feel confident in what you’ve already done, you can just give it to
me today. If you change your mind, you can give me a replacement on
Tuesday. You can, but need not, take until Tuesday.</p>
<p>I’ll give out homework 8 on Tuesday (and post it online)
instead of today, to be due the Thursday after Thanksgiving break.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017TL;DR: HW7 due Tue 11/21. Ok, upon talking to a couple of people about the homework, I’m finding that there are enough things that I didn’t really talk about sufficiently in class that I’d rather have one more chance to go over questions and concepts before the homework is due.Homework 7 PRO2017-11-15T09:45:00-05:002017-11-15T09:45:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/homework/homework-7-pro<p>I was just reminded of the fact that I didn’t really give any hints/instructions
(except kind of indirectly in the last 30 seconds on Tuesday) about how we should
draw PRO in trees, even though I have you drawing PRO in trees on the Homework.</p>
<p>The easy answer: Draw it with a triangle, like this:</p>
<p><img src="http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/assets/png/dp-tri-pro.png" width="128" /></p>
<p>The better answer: PRO is a pronoun, and pronouns actually are Ds all by
themselves (I was starting to talk about that at the end on Tuesday),
so it really should look like this:</p>
<p><img src="http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/assets/png/dp-d-pro.png" width="64" /></p>
<p>Perhaps there should be a <code class="highlighter-rouge">D'</code> in there as well, depending on what we decide about
the X-bar schema requiring a single-bar-level node.</p>
<p>Since I’d not given any instructions on this point, probably several/most
of you will have drawn this with a silent D and a silent N/NP. I’d rather
you didn’t draw it that way just because we won’t be doing it that way in
the future, but you don’t need to redraw anything if that’s how you did it.
It’ll be fine to do that in this homework, and the main point of the homework
is to get the PRO in the right place (vs. getting its internal structure right).</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017I was just reminded of the fact that I didn’t really give any hints/instructions (except kind of indirectly in the last 30 seconds on Tuesday) about how we should draw PRO in trees, even though I have you drawing PRO in trees on the Homework.Office hours today2017-11-15T09:30:00-05:002017-11-15T09:30:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/announcements/office-hours-today<p>Turns out that I’m not going to be able to make my office
hours today, sorry for the late notice. I should be there
earlier, from 1pm to 2pm, but I have a conflict at 2pm.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Turns out that I’m not going to be able to make my office hours today, sorry for the late notice. I should be there earlier, from 1pm to 2pm, but I have a conflict at 2pm.Homework 7 trees2017-11-14T20:00:00-05:002017-11-14T20:00:00-05:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/homework/homework-7-trees<p>Just a quick note on the trees in Homework 7. You are asked to draw
a couple of trees that are going to contain a DP or TP, and just today
in class I introduced the idea that we’d be starting to draw them in
a parallel way, binary branching with D’ and T’ nodes. But that was well
after Homework 7 was handed out. So, you can draw the trees for HW7
either in the “old way” (with ternary branches under TP and sometimes DP)
or in the new way (with binary branches and T’/D’ nodes). Either is fine,
for now; if you’ve already drawn the trees you can just do them the old way.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017Just a quick note on the trees in Homework 7. You are asked to draw a couple of trees that are going to contain a DP or TP, and just today in class I introduced the idea that we’d be starting to draw them in a parallel way, binary branching with D’ and T’ nodes. But that was well after Homework 7 was handed out. So, you can draw the trees for HW7 either in the “old way” (with ternary branches under TP and sometimes DP) or in the new way (with binary branches and T’/D’ nodes). Either is fine, for now; if you’ve already drawn the trees you can just do them the old way.Homework 2 notes2017-09-20T18:00:00-04:002017-09-20T18:00:00-04:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/homework/homework-2-notes<p>I have gotten a few questions about homework 2 that have highlighted a few
places where the question or intention was unclear. So, although it’s
a bit close to the homework due date, let me see if I can write a couple
of clarifications.</p>
<p>One general note: there are going to be a lot of things we are not going
to be able to explain. For one thing, there are some restrictions on
verbs like <em>fear</em> (which requires that the subject be capable of feeling
an emotion) or <em>scare</em> (which requires that the object be capable of feeling
an emotion) that we are not going to be able to account for in the syntax.
(We could call these subtypes of verbs, and write rules that specifically
apply to them, but it’s probably better to assume that sentences like
<em>Rocks fear hammers</em> and <em>Hammers scare rocks</em> are syntactically perfectly
fine, and it is the semantics that rules them out, if they are ruled out.)</p>
<p>Problem 1 (“Generalization”): The better rule I have in mind is one that
captures the intuition a bit better, for one thing. But to be more
specific, I’m thinking about treating <em>think</em> as a transitive verb that
takes a sentence as its object instead of a noun.</p>
<p>Problem 2: I got a bunch of questions about this. Part of the reason
is that I left it too wide open, so when you get to part D and give some
sentences that the grammar generates but shouldn’t, there are a couple
of different ways in which the grammar can fail. One of them was the one
I had in mind (problems with mixing Dets and Ns together that can lead
to things like <em>a Lisa</em>), but there are at least two other ways problematic
sentences might be constructed. One is that the arguments we need for
<em>bought</em>, <em>saw</em>, and <em>sent</em> are not the same. So, you can make
bad sentences by using <em>bought</em> in a ditransitive frame (with three NPs),
but that wasn’t really what I was after. The solution to such a problem
would be like what we did in class, distinguish transitive verbs from
intransitive verbs from ditransitive verbs, and rewrite the rules to
mkae use of them and restrict them to their own frame. A third kind of
problem relates to the general note at the beginning here, you can
swap recipient and theme in a ditransitive construction and end up with
somethig like <em>Homer gave a gift Maggie</em>, but this is probably syntactically
well formed, it’s just semantically broken.</p>
<p>To get where I was intending you to go, stick to problems with NPs.
Proper names taking determiners like <em>a Lisa</em>, or common nouns failing
to have one, like <em>gift</em>.</p>
<p>Problem 3: Part B was also particularly unclear to people. Here’s
what I had in mind: If you look at the sentences in (1), they show
that you can add an adjective into the definition of an NP. So if you
add the rule at allows an adjective in NP, you can derive those sentences.
What’s interesting about the sentence <em>Homer sent a funny comedian a cold beer</em>
is that we’ve gotten beyond the data in a certain sense. This tells us something
about objects, indirect objects, and NPs in general. The fact that the
system as it is set up generalizes fixes we make to subject NP to hold for
any NP. This is basically the neighborhood of why
<em>Homer sent a funny comedian a cold beer</em> might be considered interesting.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who asked questions, and I hope this is at least kind of
helpful, but let me know if other questions arise.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017I have gotten a few questions about homework 2 that have highlighted a few places where the question or intention was unclear. So, although it’s a bit close to the homework due date, let me see if I can write a couple of clarifications.Welcome to Syntax2017-09-04T16:40:51-04:002017-09-04T16:40:51-04:00http://ling-blogs.bu.edu/lx321f17/announcements/welcome-to-syntax<p>And, here we go. Welcome to Fall 2017, and welcome to the
Introduction to Sentential Structure course.</p>
<p>Announcements will be posted here, updates to the schedule,
etc. I will probably not even bother handing out a printed
copy of the schedule. If you would like to print it out, go
to the schedule page here and do so. It is likely to change
as the semester proceeds.</p>
<p>The course information page has stuff about the course
requirements and my office hours, etc.</p>
<p>So, now, let’s do syntax.</p>CAS LX 321<br/>GRS LX 621</br>Fall 2017And, here we go. Welcome to Fall 2017, and welcome to the Introduction to Sentential Structure course.